DeWeese faces trial
HARRISBURG – State Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, was ordered to stand trial Monday on charges of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest for using government employees and resources to run his political campaigns on work time at taxpayers’ expense. Dauphin County Magisterial District Judge William C. Wenner made the ruling following a preliminary hearing.
DeWeese co-defendant Sharon Rodavich, a district office aide who was arrested with DeWeese in December, waived her preliminary hearing Monday, and her attorney declined to comment.
After three prosecution witnesses, Deputy Attorney General Ken Brown read portions of DeWeese’s testimony before a grand jury that had been formed by state Attorney General Tom Corbett to probe corruption in state government. The grand jury recommended that charges be filed against DeWeese.
Brown said DeWeese testified in September of 2009 that mixing politics and campaign work “was part of the culture.”
“Historically, it was just the way business was conducted,” Brown quoted DeWeese as testifying.
However, DeWeese’s attorney, William Costopolous, argued that prosecutors left out his client’s repeated statements that he told people that they needed to take compensatory time, vacation time or personal days to do campaign work.
Costopolous asked Wenner to delay the hearing so that he could read the grand jury transcript and present other portions of it, but Brown said that the 200-plus pages could not be viewed except in the presence of an agent of the attorney general’s office. Wenner denied the request and ordered DeWeese to stand trial.
After the ruling, DeWeese challenged Corbett to bring him to trial before the November general election. DeWeese will face Republican challenger Richard Yeager in the general election while Corbett, a Republican, is running for governor against Democrat Dan Onorato.
“I think 12 million people deserve to have this decided between now and then,” said DeWeese.
Costopolous said he had little confidence in the evidence prosecutors could bring.
“This isn’t Bonusgate. This isn’t Computergate. This is Pettygate,” Costopolous said. “The allegations in support of these charges are petty.”
During his closing remarks, Brown said that DeWeese “clearly admitted to the crimes with which he’s been charged under oath.”
“(DeWeese) not only reached one hand, he reached both hands into the taxpayers’ pockets and took as much as he could until he got caught,” Brown said.
Also testifying Monday were Kevin Sidella, a former DeWeese staffer, Sheilah Novasky, the head of his Masontown office, and Susan Stoy, a former staffer in the Waynesburg office.
Sidella testified that he went to work for DeWeese after a conversation with former chief of staff Michael Manzo in 2000. Sidella testified he was to be DeWeese’s “body man,” taking care of personal tasks and doing things that others in the office didn’t want to do.
As part of his legislative job, Sidella said he coordinated DeWeese’s yearly fundraiser in Hershey, did research on potential challengers, found out how much donors gave to other candidates and kept DeWeese and Manzo up to speed about who made campaign contributions and how much they donated.
Between 2002 and 2007, Sidella estimated that fundraising was anywhere from 25 to 60 percent of his job, and by 2004, Sidella said he was the treasurer for DeWeese’s campaign and for his political action committee.
The amount of time spent fundraising was dependent upon the type of opposition DeWeese was facing, Sidella testified.
Typically, Sidella said he took his direction from Manzo, “but Bill would interject at times,” he said.
Sidella recalled in 2005, meeting with DeWeese and Manzo at a steakhouse in Harrisburg, during which Manzo told him he had to raise $600,000 for the upcoming campaign. At the time, there was controversy over a middle-of-the-night pay raise and a gambling bill, Sidella said.
“The only thing he could have been referring to was campaign money,” Sidella said.
Around 2002, Sidella said he questioned DeWeese about the legality of doing campaign work on legislative time.
“He paused, and took a deep breath and said ‘Our saving grace is everybody does it,'” Sidella testified.
Over the years he worked for DeWeese, his salary jumped from $35,000 to a high of $75,000, Sidella said. He also received two $10,000 bonuses for his fundraising work.
Sidella testified Manzo asked for the names of the people who had done outstanding campaign related work, and doled out bonuses. The scandal that became known as Bonusgate touched off a dozen arrests in 2007.
As the investigation into the bonuses started, Sidella testified DeWeese “got worried” about having campaign work done on legislative time. He even ordered the office swept for bugs, or listening devices, Sidella said.
Manzo was indicted in 2007 and pleaded guilty pleas to six counts of conflict of interest, three counts of theft by deception and one count of criminal conspiracy to commit conflict of interest in January. He was scheduled for sentencing in June, but it was continued for six months at prosecutors’ request.
Novasky, who started working for DeWeese as an intern in 1988, testified she did campaign work on legislative time, but never really knew she wasn’t supposed to – and still isn’t sure what the difference is.
“For me, it was voluntary, but yes a part of you would feel you needed to be there because you didn’t want to get yelled at or have any retribution,” Novasky testified.
If she missed campaign functions or planning sessions, Novasky said she felt obligated to explain why because she believed it was part of her job.
She recounted Rodavich, the Waynesburg office manager, handing out written notes with assignments to staffers, but also said campaign-related meetings were typically held in the evenings or on weekends.
During one of those meetings at DeWeese’s home, Novasky recalled telling him that office personnel didn’t want to work on the campaign in 2006. She testified DeWeese reacted by yelling.
However, Novasky said she is still an ardent supporter of DeWeese.
“You believe in the political process you’ve dedicated 23 years to?” Costopolous asked
“Yes,” Novasky replied.
“And you believe in Bill DeWeese?” he asked.
“Yes,” she testified, smiling at DeWeese.
Novasky testified she campaigned hard for DeWeese in the primary, and will do the same in the general election – and never felt pressured to do so.
“I think he was a victim of the system as much as I am,” she testified. “Historically, the evolution of campaigns and legislative (work) has been much more blended than people know.”
Stoy testified that campaigning for DeWeese was “expected,” and she was never trained on the difference between legislative and campaign work.
In 2006, when DeWeese faced challenges in the primary and general elections, Stoy testified that meetings were held in evenings and after work that each staffer was given a binder with three precincts in this district.
Stoy testified she had three precincts, including the one in Franklin Township where DeWeese lives.
After a misunderstanding, Stoy said she found out that DeWeese wanted her fired. Instead, she applied for another state job.
Stoy testified she works for the state Department of Revenue.
After the hearing, DeWeese said he helped her get that job.
Stoy also said she expressed concern that campaign mail was in DeWeese’s Waynesburg legislative office, and cited the case brought against former legislator Jeff Habay, who was charged and convicted of having his staff do campaign work at taxpayers’ expense.
DeWeese said after the decision that he wasn’t surprised, and reiterated that he “always” asked staff to use non-legislative time to do campaign work.
Brown said that if DeWeese is convicted of all the crimes charged, he could face a maximum of 40 years behind bars, and extensive fines.
Rodavich was scheduled to have her preliminary hearing along with DeWeese. She faced allegations that she did not perform legislative tasks, but instead did personal tasks and ran DeWeese’s campaign locally.
Brown declined to comment on whether Rodavich’s waiver of the charges was indicative of a plea or a deal with prosecutors.